Fatal attraction and sins of passion

By The Standard | Feb. 28, 2021

Possessive feelings can afflict a person and bring an obsession that generates a chain of reactions of all sorts, at whatever the cost. People have been maimed, killed, tortured, raped, sold out, and etc in the name of love. In one example, King David, a God-fearing great ruler, succumbed to the covetous craving for a married woman. His story of lust for Bathsheba, the wife of one of his army commanders makes heartbreaking reading. In 11 Samuel 11 and 12, the story begins: One late afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking upon the roof of the King’s house he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. David enquired about the woman and was told, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hitite.” David instantly instructed a messenger to bring the woman to him. After she came, he lay with her to satisfy his sexual desire for her.

BY PROSPER TINGINI

Was that not rape? Let’s call a spade a spade. She became pregnant with his child thereafter. Instead of restraint and remorse, he proceeded to cunningly arrange for the assassination of the husband in a well-executed plan. He then married the widowed woman. What treachery!! What sin is great greater than this?

However, God sees everything under the sun and David did not get away with it. The Lord cursed him for his acts (2 Samuel 12:10-15), saying, “Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hitite to be your wife . . . Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbour, and he shall lie with your wives in sight of the sun. For you did it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.” David pleaded for forgiveness, and as usual, the Lord relented with a reduced sentence; “I have put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because of this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord; the child that is born to you shall die.” In subsequent chapters, all the foretold declared curses came to pass.

Many other stories have been told, written and documented around the world highlighting some deadly incidents of fatal attractions. Being consumed by a passion for a woman who is not your wife is not love, it is lust and a yearning for sin. True love is in the heart, and not of the flesh. A dissolution of a relationship may cause a jilted partner to arbitrarily conclude, ‘If I can’t have her/him then nobody else will.’ Such an unguided mentality may result in some grave consequences. There should be specialised platforms for counselling to psychologically prepare and rehabilitate people’s minds when faced with an inevitable breakdown of a cherished relationship. Matters of passion are delicate and require priority handling to reduce incidents of domestic violence and unnecessary loss of life.

Our sense of judgement can be impaired or altered when one is in a state of obsession with a loved one, especially when love is put above everything else. We also have a typical example of the story of Samson in Judges, chapters 15 and 16. He had an insatiable sexual appetite for Philistine women. He was obsessed with their beauty. Samson had a renowned physical strength which abided in his hair; the secret being that his hair was never to be cut nor the head shaved. His first wife tried to extract the truth from him so that she could pass the information to her Philistine people, but he mislead her. Being still of sober mind, he abandoned the wife and killed the 30 man behind the attempted betrayal. His next infatuation was for a prostitute in Gaza, from whose house he escaped capture by a whisker, after information was leaked about his abode there. Men should take a cue of warnings from Proverbs 7:20-23, regards prostitutes; “With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him. All at once he follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter…..” Life, power and wealth can be lost through associating with prostitutes.

Samson proceeded to again fall head over heels with another Philistine conspirator, famously known as Delilah. Three times she enticed him to reveal the secret to his strength, three times he misled her, to thwart her conspiracy with the enemy seeking his capture. Surprisingly, Samson continued with his obsession and lust for Delilah, which would cost him in his life. On her forth interrogation scheme, Samson finally relented and revealed the sworn secret. Passion, and not common sense, prevailed. He was shaved while unaware and asleep, then pathetically captured. His eyes were gorged out and he became blind. His unbreakable infatuation for a woman, Delilah, was his doom. He lost his wisdom, strength and life through that fatal attraction, a sinful weakness.

It is often said that money is the root of all evil. Wealth, power and money are things cherished by many. More often, woman have a propensity to succumb to the temptations of a man dangling any of these charms. They sometimes entangle themselves In love triangles with married man, or even enter into polygamous marriages for the sake of enjoying the benefits. In the scriptures, there is the story of Solomon in 1 Kings, chapter 11, from which reads; “King Solomon had seven hundred wives, princesses, and 300 concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For when he was old, his wives turned his heart away to other gods and his heart was not holy faithful to Lord our God, as was the heart of David, his father.” King Solomon had in excess 1 000 women as part of his sexual female entourage. What sane woman would allow herself to be part of such a crazy web? More than a thousand women sharing one man? An attraction based on a man’s power and wealth, with little or no real love for the man? Solomon was endowed with an abundance of wisdom, yet in matters of love he went astray and did what the Lord had instructed him not to do. As a consequence, God proclaimed, “Since this has been your mind and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the Kingdom from you and will give it to your servants.” This punishment affected the nation of Israel as this cursed prophecy came to pass. Of the original 12 territories held by the 12 tribes of Israel, only one portion, the land held by the tribe of Judah was left in the hands of the Jews after Solomon’s death. Israel still remains a small, but powerful nation. Presidents, kings and other leaders who practice sexual immorality and perversion can bring a curse to a nation under their jurisdiction, with the citizens bearing the consequences.